Infectious puzzled djarbouka beats, strokes on string and a constant raspy female voice- that’s Zina Daoudia’s steady-as-she-goes trademark tecno-Chaabi that has won over Moroccan and even Algerian youths with fastpaced beats. Chaabi is the new Maghrebi sound of berber folk-meets-pop that all the young folks listen & dance to at the moment. More folks in the West should really do so too.

The Studio 2M programmes are really something, a counter attack to the ilk of Maroc Idol by going deeper into the heavier folkloric stuff that shakes and rattles. Here’s the place where Dawdia earned her rap with the audience. On these stages, old traditions get turned into new digital ones for today’s Moroccan youths. No muffled western currents here, unless you want to talk about the influence of autotune. Moroccan folklore makes a strong step into the new digital age. The clips below show urban Morocco in full swing and headbangshaking motion. Girls and boys next to each other, dancing. Women in short laces, tight shirts, skintally clad even. You might even say, western, if the urban Moroccan context would have been lost on you. People who don’t know much about Morocco might have this frame in mind of a secular society, where teenage youths are herded apart under a rule of hormonal scrutiny by veilded elders with sticks. Nowadays in the big cities, music speaks in a free tongue. Here’s some hazy audiovisual reality;

and here’s a downloadable piece from on one of the many mp3 cdr’s that I brought back from Morocco last summer. Over 10 minutes long, it slowly builds up with interpunctions, stepovers and chitchat as a gelling glue for her rapturous rhythm.